are you ready for that pressure? >> absolutely. you know, given the fact i have been in opposition my entire career i i've taken on every special interest it is funny to find myself as the front runner. we are going to enter this debate with the full knowledge that tens of millions of americans want fundamental change in terms of what's going on in this country. they are tired of a president who is pathological liar. who is running a corrupt administration, who is a racist and a sexist and homophobe and xenophobe. i think there is a growing revulsion in this country to this president. people do gnat want to be embarrassed when they turn on the tv when kids are in the room. not one trying to undermine american democracy here and around the world. so i'm feeling good, and i think we've got a good shot to win this thing. >> all right, so now's your chance to make your case to the voters of this sastate. let's bring in a.j. harly from goose creek. he was friends with the youngest victim of the 2016 church shooting in south carolina. she was 26 years old, a recent graduate -- i'm sorry, aj's a recent graduate an administration degree. aj helped create something called the scholarship, it helps local minorities with education. he's currently undecided who's going to support the primary but he has questions tonight. >> thanks for having me. my question -- let me start again. about five years ago we lost nine people in the charleston nine massacre. they were attending bible study in our beautiful city. the youngest was a phenomenal friend and inspiration for me today. since then nationwide there's been massacre after massacre. i want to know what your plan about gun laws, background checks and how these issues are being addressed or resolved? how can we minimize the chances of something like this happening again? >> thank you, aj. thank you for the work you're doing. a.j. is raising an issue that i hear from coast to coast. no matter what your politics may be people are horrified and disgusted every time we turn on the tv and we hear another mass shooting. i was in el paso just the other day and you had 22 people massacred there where the very sick person was actually targeting latinos. you talk about charleston and the murder of african-americans. last year it was a synagogue where jewish people were targeted. my administration will do what the american people want, not what the nra wants. what is very clear to me is there is a growing consensus in this country. rural states like mine and urban states about several things. number one, we need universal background checks. people who have a violent past including domestic violence should not be owning guns. number two, we have got to end the so-called gun show loophole which allows people -- which allows people to legally purchase guns while avoiding a background check. number three, we've got to end the so-called strong man position which allows you to legally walk in, buy as many guns as you want and then sell them to criminal gangs and elements. number four, what we have got to do and something i have supported for like 30 years is ban the sale and distribution of assault weapons in this country. i am -- i am proud that i have a d-minus voting record from the nra and i suspect as president it'll get even worse. >> quick follow, as you probably know former vice president biden has come after you on this issue. he has called your position iimmoral when it comes to providing legal protection for gun manufacturers. he's also criticized for your previous no votes on the brady bill. >> well, first of all that brady bill was i believe in 1993. and the terms of the manufacturers liability i am now on the bill that takes away that exemption. bottom line is i think what we all know as a.j. was saying what we have seen too many times these horrible, horrible shootings -- i'll tell you something else, chris. it's not only loss of life. it is not only the horrible massacres, you know what it is? it is kids who go to school terrified. i was in new hampshire before christmas, never forget this, and a woman says bernie, what should i tell my daughter when she wants me to buy her a bulletproof backpack for christmas? how horrible is that? so we have got to do an enormous amount of work on this issue. i think the american people are coming together as president unlike trump, unlike the republican leadership. i will not allow the nra to call the tune on this issue. >> she is a social worker, health care manager from charleston. she's leaning towards supporting you. >> hi there. let me be the first to wellium you to charleston. we're so glad you're here. bernie, could you please share how you will allay the fears of those who see your political ideology as too extreme? how do you respond to americans who believe we need to beat trump more than we need extreme political policies? >> thank you for your question and you're quite right. i think not only virtually all democrats, a whole lot of independents and some republicans understand it is absolutely imperative that we defeat this extremely dangerous president, so i'm happy to tell you for a start but if you look at the polling out there, polls go up and polls go down, but almost all of the polls nationally have me defeating trump. if you look at just polls that came out a few days ago on sunday, i think it was cbs, i am beating trump in michigan, beating trump in pennsylvania, beating trump in wisconsin. i think we're tied in florida. and i think, cheryl, that we are the strongest campaign because we have the energy and the excitement that we need to create the largest voter turn out in the history of this country, which is exactly what we need in order to defeat trump. so what our campaign is doing, and i think doing quite well, i think you saw that in iowa, new hampshire, and nevada is we are reaching out to working people, many of whom have become disillusioned with the political process. and they say you know what, the political establishment is not feeling my pain. we are reaching out to those people. we are reaching out big time to young people. and if we can bring young people, black and white and latino, native-american, asian-american, young people into the political process in the numbers that i think we can it will be extraordinary. we will defeat trump big time. i know if you look at the media they'll say bernie's ideas are radical and extreme, they're out of the mainstream. let me just tell you i don't think that's true. is raising minimum wage to $15 an hour a radical idea? >> no. >> is making sure all of our kids have the opportunity to get a higher education regardless of their income because we're going to make public colleges and universities tuition-free, is that a radical idea? >> no. >> this is a scientific poll. you hear this? is doing what every other major country on earth does -- jane and i live 50 miles away from the canadian border. somehow they manage to garnty health care for every man, woman and child in that country. is guaranteeing health care to all people as a human right a radical idea? >> no. >> is addressing the existential threat of climate change a radical idea? >> no. >> i rest my case. >> the criticism as you know about your ideas is also about the campaigns you're competing against. former mayor buttigieg will be on the stage after you tonight. he says not only are the ideas radical but you are inflexible and therefore can be polarizing, even analogizing that policy to trump. >> i have a lot of respect for mayor buttigieg. his ideology may be it's just shaped by the fact he's raised a whole lot of money from i think 40, 45 billionaires. and you know when you raise money from billionaires you develop a certain point of view. we don't raise money from billionaires. we have raised more -- received more individual campaign contributions for more americans than any candidate in the history of this country. that's where we come from. >> but about the polarizing nature and the inflexibility you won't work with anybody? >> that's total nonsense. when i was in the u.s. house of representatives where i was for 16 years there was a period of a number of years where i passed more roll call amendments in a bipartisan way than anybody else in the house of representatives. that's 434 of the people. i wrote a veterans bill which was one of the most sweeping veterans bill in recent history working with john mccain. we just last year for the first time managed to utilize the war powers act to get the united states -- get our troops out of the horrific war in yemen -- we got that past -- i work with a very conservative of utah. so the idea when i was mayor i worked, the idea i can't work with peoplites one of those myths that keeps popping up as the election day comes closer. >> all right, let's get another question from the audience here. an attorney from mt. pleasant currently undecided. meredith, your question. >> hi, good evening. as you can probably tell i am 7 months pregnant so the topic of health care is especially relevant to me right now. when you think of government run divisions like the dmv or the social security office they are not exactly models for efficiency, innovation and quality of services. i think when some people pakture their health care being run like the dmv it is probably a little scary thought. what would you do to ensure that the wait times do not go up and the quality of services do not go down? >> thank you, meredith. and good luck on that beautiful baby i know is going to -- >> thank you. >> for a start we're not talking about gump run health care. there are countries around the world where they do have that. that's not what we're talking about. right now the most popular health insurance program in the united states is medicare. that's what it is. i want to expand medicare to include dental care, eyeglasses, hearing aids and home health care. under medicare -- because those are basic health care needs that medicare now does not cover. but as you know under medicare you go to any doctor you want. you go to any hospital you want, and we continue what you have right now, but it's changing is that instead of having thousands of private health insurance programs in which we spend hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars to administer we expand medicare over a 4-year period to provide health care to every man, woman and child in this country. and this is what i want to say on this issue which i've studied a whole lot. right now we are spending twice as much per person on health care as the people of any other country. twice as much. now you might think when you spend twice as much we have, wow what an incredible health care system we have. we don't. despite spending thousands of dollars on every man, woman and child we have 87 million americans who are uninsured and underinsured with high deductibles and high co-payments. at a minimum, and this is conservative, 30,000 people in our country die each year because they don't have insurance, they don't get to a doctor when they should. by the time they get to the doctor the situation is too late. in america everybody knows we pay by far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs because we have a corrupt, uncontrolled pharmaceutical industry which charges us any price they can get away with. in some cases ten times more than the canadians or europeans or mexicans pay for the same exact drug. and i want you all to hear this one because this is an indication how cruel this system is. in america today half a million people go bankrupt because of medically related bills. what kind of system do we have when you're struggling with cancer, which should be enough to keep you occupied, when you're struggling with cancer, heart disease, alzheimer's, your family faces financial ruin? that is disgrace that should not be happening in america. so all we are doing -- all we are doing here, this is not a radical proposal. we're doing what every major country does around the world. and by the way when you get rid of the profiteering of the health care industry, when you get rid of the incredibly complicated, everybody here has had to argue with the insurance companies whether you get the coverage you thought you paid for. recent study from yale says $450 billion a year, we guarantee health care to all people we save, the average person saves substantial sums of money on health care. >> he's an attorney, former federal prosecutor. emmanuel is the second vice chair of the charleston democrats, he's likely supporting former vp joe biden. >> i'm really excited about getting a democrat in office and when i hear you speak i get really excited. but i remember trump excited his base with a promise to build a wall but with no real plan to pay for it. your plan for free college tuition and medicare for all seems like a way to excite the democratic base with no real plan to pay for it. now, how is your position and your campaign different than what donald trump did? >> given the fact i've spent my entire adult life fighting against everything that trump stands for, trust me we're a little bit different. here's what i want do. i thought that question might come up. here it is. this is list which will be on our website tonight for how we pay for every program that we have developed. but let me give you some examples, okay? you asked a good question. here's the answer. you're right. i believe that we should make public colleges and universities tuition-free because in the year 2020 when we live in a competitive global economy i want all of our kids regardless of income to be able to get that higher education, college or trade schools. by the way, i also believe we should cancel all student debt in america. okay, now you're smiling and you say, well, that's a great idea how does he pay for it, right? did i read your mind on that one? the answer is i'll tell you exactly how we pay for it. we pay for it through a rather modest tax on wall street speculation. that is how we pay for that, all right? you will remember 12 years ago the congress against my vote bailed out the crooks on wall street who nearly destroyed this economy. i think a modest tax on wall street speculation right now to make sure all of our kids who have the ability and desire get the education they need is something that we should do. >> you're slick giving me this piece of paper. >> i know. >> the criticism is there is a lot of detail here in here. you can look for it on the website. it is not matching the price tag some put at near $30 trillion for the medicare transition. you get about halfway there, the question becomes how do you get the rest of the way? >> well, we get there. there was a study, chris, i don't know if you happened to see it -- >> $30 trillion over 10 years. >> a study came out from yale university, a number of epidemiologists, a really good study published in a major medical journal. what they said is when you get rid of all the administrative waste we have now having to administer, can you believe the thousands and thousands of separate plans, you're in this, you're covered with this prescription, and you've got that, it is a disaster. when you get rid of all that administrative waste which other countries do, when you get rid of the profit tearing of the drug companies we can in fact pay for medicare for all and substantially lower the costs for the average american worker. number one, for the average person how do we pay for it today, chris? the average family in america makes about $60,000 a year. that family is paying premiums, deductibles, out-of-pocket expenses and co-payments. that's $60,000 a year family is now paying $12,000 a year for health care. that's an outrageous sum of money, about 20% of the family's income. what we do among other proposals in there is to say, all right, you are that average $60,000 a year family. you're going to pay a 4% tax-exempting the first $29,000 leaving $31,000 of taxable dollars which is about $1,200 a year, a heck of a lot better than what you're medicare for all no more premiums for the worker or the employer, no more out-of-pocket expenses, no more deductibles. and because we're taking on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry nobody in america under medicare for all pays more than $200 a year for prescription drugs. >> this was something for you guys to decide and here's another question from the audience. i want to bring in matthew brith, a recently retired u.s. navy lieutenant commander. he is undecided. thank you for your service. matthew, your question. >> senator sanders, how will you approach the democratic convention if you do not have the necessary delegates to win on the first ballot but you do have an overwhelming plurality among the candidates? >> thanks for the question, matthew. that's an issue that has been discussed. who knows what's going to happen -- you know, we can't predict the future but if i or anybody else goes into the democratic convention with a substantial plurality i believe that individual me or anybody else should be the candidate of the democratic party. and i will -- i'll tell you what, matthew. i will tell you why. it will be incredibly divisive for the democratic party if a candidate who has won the support of people all over the country -- this is hard fought process here. you know, we're competing in every state in this country. all of the candidates are working really hard, and if one candidate comes out on top to say to the country you voted for that candidate oh, but by the way we don't think that candidate should be the nominee, i think that will be a serious, serious problem for the democratic party, and i think it will wreck havoc on that person's campaign. >> let's take a break. when we come back we have a lot more questions for senator sanders right after this. feel the clarity of new non-drowsy claritin cool mint chewables. the only allergy product with relief of your worst symptoms, including itchy throat. plus an immediate blast of cooling sensation. feel the clarity and live claritin clear. i receivelize travel rewards. going new places! going out for a bite! going anytime. rewarded! learn more at the explorer card dot com. choose boldly. feria haircolor by l'oreal. pure dyes, with triple highlights. multi-faceted, shimmering color- with multiple tones in every strand. never dull, never flat. live in color. live in feria. by l'oreal. you ever wish you weren't a motaur? sure. sometimes i wish i had legs like you. yeah, like a regular person. no. still half bike/half man, just the opposite. oh, so the legs on the bottom and motorcycle on the top? yeah. yeah, i could see that. for those who were born to ride, there's progressive. yeah, i could see that. oh no, here comes gthe neighbor probably to brag about how amazing his xfinity customer service is. i'm mike, i'm so busy. good thing xfinity has two-hour appointment windows. they have night and weekend appointments too. he's here. bill? karolyn? nope! no, just a couple of rocks. download the my account app to manage your appointments making today's xfinity customer service simple, easy, awesome. i'll pass. all right, welcome back. we're live with senator bernie sanders here in charleston, south carolina. senator, thank you for joining us. let's get right back to the audience. we have a question here from a young man named peter beck, high school student, undecided. peter? >> good evening, senator sanders. out that both elements of the e republican party and russian interests are supporting your bid for the democratic nomination. how do you respond to those that say that a successful nomination from you would be a victory for republicans and russia while a defeat for the democratic party? >> well, don't quite see it that way. i think if there is a candidate who loves mr. putin, who sees him as his best friend, that is the president of the united states. not me. i happen to believe that putin is a dangerous autocrat. unlike president trump i think he meddled very heavily in the 2016 election. and if by any chance mr. putin is watching this show, mr. putin, you ain't going to meddle in american elections when i'm president of the united states. and second of all -- second of all, there are differences of opinion within the intelligence community of the role that russia is playing, but there's no question that in 2016 they meddled in our election. and the ugliest thing they do is try to divide us up. and they're really smart at it. they know those points that can bring people apart, and obviously in this country my job if elected president is to bring us together not continue this divisiveness. >> quick follow on that in terms of decency. you suggested that some of the harassment from the so-called bernie bros on twitter might be russian interference. is that what the u.s. intel folks told you? >> no, that was classified and it wasn't that. but here's what it was, chris. look, we have millions of followers and i'm not going to tell you we don't have some jerks out there. but i do want to say to those folks we do not want your support if you think what our campaign is about is making ugly attacks on other candidates, we don't want you. you're not part of us. and i want to say also as i see one of our main surrogates and you can talk to her later on senator turner about the ugly and racist attacks that have come into our campaign, my wife is here. so if anyone thinks it's just our campaign you're deadly mistaken. now, in terms of why i believe it is possible the russians played a role we had a disagreement with the culinary workers union in nevada. they're a great union. we disagreed on health care issues. there were some really ugly attacks against the leadership. i have perhaps the strongest lifetime pro-union voting record of any member of the congress. does anybody really think -- anybody really think who's a spo supporter of mine, it just seems kind of fishy. >> so it's fishy so you're assuming it might be -- and if isn't people saying things you don't like you're saying you don't want their support? >> there's too much ugliness, too much divisiveness. these are people standing up for justice, standing up for racial justice, economic justice, environmental justice. i tell you if i get inspired we just came from a rally but if we have people who are ugly and attack in a vicious way, we don't want your support, that's it. >> web designer and developer from north charleston, he supported you in the past, this time undecided. >> hey, bernie. so it seems like democrats get kind of outfoxed by the republicans year after year in terms of marketing and message and campaign. do you regret wrapping your ideas around the banner of socialism, and would you regret -- i'm sorry, would your campaign be more palatable to the average american if you changed nothing except for dropping the word socialism? >> well, it's democratic socialism and the policies that we are advocating are policies that exist all over the world, okay? and what that means is i happen to believe as a democratic socialist that health care is a human right, that all of our people deserve. i happy to believe in the richest country in the history of the world education is human right. it is a disgrace. we have today a child care system that is absolutely dysfunctional. it is absolutely unaffordable for so many working families, all right? so, yeah, i believe in universal high quality child care. i believe in tripling funding for lower income title i schools so that we have the best public education in the world. i believe in those things. i believe that in a nation when the very, very rich are getting fenomly richer we should not have half a million people sleeping out on the streets tonight. but i wanted to say if i could in response to that very good question is in many respects we are living in a socialist society today. what is the difference? when donald trump was a private real estate developer in new york city he received $800 million, a billionaire received $800 million in subsidies and tax breaks. that's called corporate socialism. amazon -- amazon is a corporati corporation owned by the wealthiest guy, anybody know how much they paid in federal income taxes? they paid zero. the walton family owns wal-mart. the walton family is the wealthiest family in america. they pay their workers starvation wages. many of those workers are forced to go on medicaid, food stamps and public housing. who pays for that? the middle class does. so you are subsidizing the wealthiest class in america. >> let's take one more step down the road of this stigma coming from your fellow democrats. you said on "60 minutes" this weekend it is unfair to simply say everything is bad with the way fidel castro ruled in cuba. now democratic members of congress who represent cuban americans in florida, obviously you've got to win there, they're attacking your comment as absolutely unacceptable, singing your praises of a murderous tyrant. >> the response was when fidel castro first came to power which was '09, you know what he did? he initiated a major literacy program. there were a lot of folks in cuba at that point who were illiterate. and he formed the literacy brigade and they helped people to learn to read and write. you know what, i think teaching people to read and write is a good thing. i have been consistent and critical of all authoritarian regimes all over the world including cuba, including nicaragua, including saudi arabia, including china, including russia. i happen to believe in democracy, not authoritarianism. but you can say china is another example. becoming more and more authoritarian. but can anyone deny, i mean the facts are clear that they have taken more people out of extreme poverty that any country in history? do i get criticized because i say that's the truth. so that is a fact, end of discussion. >> so to the democrats who say you don't say good things about fidel castro, he destroyed freedoms in tat country, played winners and losers and put them in prison forever. you don't give them a pat on the back for anything. >> truth is truth, all right? now, if you want to disagree with me, if someone wants to say -- and by the way all those congress people you mentioned just so happen to be supporting other candidates. no doubt, coincidently. but you know the truth is the truth and that's what happened in the first years of the castro regime. >> all right, another question. history professor at the college of charleston, recently published a book about white supremacy and the confederacy. he previously supported julian castro, now undecide. professor? >> obviously symbols are controversial right now and here in charleston it remains an issue especially in light of the terrorist attack in 2015. what is your take on them and how do we improve race relations? >> thank you very much for that question. you know, a lot about donald trump sickens me. but maybe at the top of the list is his very intentional effort to try to divide us up based on the color of our skin or where we were born or our religion or sexual orientation, even on gender. as you know before trump became president he was the leader of the so-called birther movement. remember that? this was a disgusting effort to try to delegitimize the first african-american president in the history of our country, barack obama. it wasn't to criticize obama, it wasn't to attack obama. it was to say obama wasn't even born in america, shouldn't be the president of the united states. so let me say this i see especially coming after trump the most important thing that we can do as a nation is everything possible to end-all forms of discrimination in this country. right now we are dealing -- as everybody knows we're dealing with systemic racism. we have a wealth gap in this country. i don't know if everybody knows that white families are now worth ten times more than black families, where black women are three times more likely to die than white women in childbirth, where the infant mortality rate in black women is much higher, where there's discrimination in-housing, where there's discrimination in education. and clearly one of the main goals and one of the main priorities of a sanders administration is to do everything humanly possible to end racism in america, to end sexism in america, to end homophobia in america, and we're seeing a rides in religious bigotry as well. we are one people. dr. martin luther king remind us in a very profound way we judge human beings not by the color of their skin, we look at people, we judge people based on their character, and that is the goal of my administration. >> quick follow up to the something relevant in the aftermath of the shooting here. the row of statues and icons of confederates then governor nikki haley would say people had hijacked the meaning of the confederate battle flag when other people just thought it meant sacrifice and heritage. what does it mean to you? >> that's what it does mean now. so i support -- i think these relics might be placed in museums, but i don't want kids coming out and saying looking at a statue of somebody who believed in slavery. those are not -- you know, i understand history and you can't wipeout history. and those should be placed in historical locations but we want kids to look up and say, wow, this is somebody who was a great leader for liberation, this was somebody who believed in racial s justice, somebody who fought for working people, somebody who believed in womens rights moch those are the people we want our kids to learn from and to respect, not people who believe and defended slavery. >> let's bring in the operations manager for a non-profit lender here in charleston, a supporter of yours. >> good evening, senator sanders. given your recent health scare do you plan on announcing your choice of running mate soon as this may alleviate some of the fears about your ability to hold office and also to announce any of those duties that this may fall to? >> right, as you know i had a heart attack and bottom line is i'm feeling fine. i think we did three rounds yesterday so i'm feeling very, very good but the question is about a vice presidential part of the ticket. so yes the answer is we will do that but it's a little bit presumptuous right now. i'll tell you one thing, that person will not be an old white guy. that i can say definitively. and i do want to say this in all seriousness, that our cabinet and our administration will very intentionally look like america. so when you turn on -- i think it's important that all of our people see themselves reflected in the administration of the president of the united states, and we will absolutely do that. >> all right, let's take a quick break. we have more with senator bernie sanders right after this. ♪ [shouting] [clapping and shouting] [cymbals clanging] [knocking] room for seven. and much, much more. the first-ever glb. lease the glb 250 suv for just $419 a month at your local mercedes-benz dealer. it's got all my favorite shows turn oright there.boom, i wish my trading platform worked like that. well have you tried thinkorswim? 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get published now, call for your free publisher kit today! welcome back to a cnn presidential town hall with senator bernie sanders live in charleston, south carolina. senator, thank you for joining us. all the, a front-runner question for you. joe biden's campaign released an ad criticizing you for reportedly considering a primary challenge against president barack obama in 2012. quote, when it comes on building on obama's legacy, bernie sanders cannot be trusted. did you consider that? >> no. and i like joe. joe is a friend of mine and i've known him for many years, but you know what happens in campaigns? at the end of the season it's called silly season and people say things they should not say. in 2012 i was very busy running for re-election for the united states senate in the state of vermont. in fact i ended up campaigning in obama and i'm a strong supporter of all that barack obama has accomplished. >> i'll give you a full benefit of response. the atlantic had the reporting, they published. >> i'm a senator from a small state and i did not give any consideration to running for president of the united states until 2015, and that was i was looking around and i thought that the working families in this country needed a progressive voice, and the truth is as you'll recall, chris, there was a lot of discussion about elizabeth warren running for president and i waited, and senator warren said, no, she's not going to run. i did run. but the idea of running in 2012 absolutely untrue. >> i think one of the first times you ever yelled at me if you believe in it so strongly why don't you run for president that's when you yelled at me. dylan harris, a student who was supporting andrew yang now undecided. dylan? >> senator sanders why does your climate change proposal phase-out nuclear energy when it accounts for 20% all u.s. energy and 50% nuclear energy? >> right now we do not know how to get rid of the nuclear waste that is out there, waste that is going to be around for a very, very long time. as you know the congress thought about in nevada, i don't believe that is going to happen, so right now all of the country including the state of vermont, we have nuclear waste along side a plant that has since been shutdown, right by the connecticut river. and all over this country you have nuclear waste stored in places that are not particularly safe, so i don't know how we can build more nuclear plants when we don't know how to get rid of the waste we have. second of all in terms of the construction of new nuclear plants you may or may not know that they are far, far more expensive than investing in wind, solar and other sustainable energies. >> all right, our next question is from izy smith. is that right? is that who we have up? let's look around. somebody's got to want a question. we have all kinds of people lined up. it's good to have you. a former middle schoolteacher turned law student at charleston school of law, a supporter of yours. beverly, thank you for being patient. what's your question? >> thank you. senator sanders, this may i'll be graduating from law school with over $250,000 in student loan debt. the majority from my undergraduate education. what is your plan to help students like me with student loan debt, and how do you plan to pay for it? >> thank you, beverly. our campaign is asking the american people to think outside of the box. what beverly just described is insane. it's what it is. what crime did she commit? she wanted to get an education. this is the wealthiest country on earth. people should not have to go a quarter of a million dollars in debt to get an education. and that is why i have proposed and will fight for a proposal that imposes a modest tax on wall street speculation. we bailed those guys out 12 years ago and a modest tax on wall street speculation will pay for making public colleges and universities tuition-free and canceling all student debt. >> quick question for you. >> yeah. >> so cost of college, real issue. cost of financing and what kind of rules they can have that's one issue. what do you say to it families out there who say we worked really hard, we stretched so our kids didn't have to take the same amount of loans or they didn't take loans and now you're asking me to pay back other peoples loans when i didn't take them? >> i'm not asking. this is going to be a tax on wall street speculation and it exempts all those middle income people who might be impacted. look, chris, here is maybe the bottom line of this whole discussion. i wish we had an hour to get into it. today in america we have massive levels of income and wealth inequality. you have the top 1% earning more wegt than the bottom 92%. you have the top 1% earning 49% of all new income. and i happen to believe and i say this unapologetically and i know that's why wall street gets a little bit nervous and the 1% gets a little bit nervous. that at a time when wages for the american people for the last 45 years have been flat, average american not making a nickel more than he or she did 45 years ago meanwhile in the last 30 years the top 1% see a $20 trillion increase in their wealth. i do believe it's time to tax the very rich and large corporations making big profits. that is what i believe. >> we only have a couple of minutes. benjamin is a supporter of yours, important question. >> hey, bernie. as a young jewish person the rise of such a historic political figure like yourself is awe-inspiring. why would it be significant for you to be the first jewish president in the history of our nation? >> i'll tell you. as i think chris knows, the media knows i don't like to get into personal stuff too much, i can remember very vividly as a kid looking at picture books about what happened in the holocaust. as it happens my father's family was wiped out by hitler. my brother and i and our wives went to poland to the town he was born in. he fled terrible poverty and anti-selltism, and they took us to a place where the nazis had the people dig a grave and they shot them all, 300 people in there. i think the lesson i learned in the neighborhood i grew up there are people who had tattoos on their arms from having been in concentration camps. i learned at a very early age if you like white nationalism which is what nazism is in the extreme is about, and i think at a very early age i learned it is absolutely imperative not just me but all of us do everything we can to end-all forms of racism and white nationalism. that is how it has impacted me. >> senator sanders coming up next former mayor pete buttigieg joining don lemon. i'll be back with tom stier. please, stay with cnn. your choices make you. choose boldly. feria haircolor by l'oreal. pure dyes, with triple highlights. multi-faceted, shimmering color- with multiple tones in every strand. never dull, never flat. live in color. live in feria. by l'oreal. live in color. live in feria. whoh no, that looks grossit. what is that? 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yup. you can transfer your service online in about a minute. you can do that? yeah. and with two-hour service appointment windows, it's all on your schedule. awesome. so while moving may still come with its share of headaches... no kidding. we're doing all we can to make moving simple, easy, awesome. go to xfinity.com/moving to get started. all right. welcome back to cnn town hall. live from charleston, south carolina. i am don lemon, and good evening. we're excited to have you here. in just a few days voters here will put their stamp on the 2020 race. first they get to ask the candidates all the questions they want tonight. we have just heard from senator sanders who is fresh off the dominant win in nevada. now let's welcome the south bend indiana mayor, former south bend indiana mayor, pete

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